Guys quick question, if you got the AAA award, are the bonus points automatically added by UAC if you have unsw as your first preference...or do we have to notify them?
That's not exactly how it works with bonus points. Bonus points only help with admission to programs where you have missed the cut-off but a certain amount, but have exceeded that amount in these bonus points. UAC does nothing here.
To put things into perspective with the good old beer analogy, imagine you have a glass of beer. Now the cut-off is some line marked on the glass. What happens is that your actual ATAR is the actual liquid of the beer. Now at the top you have foam at the top. Both these volumes can vary quite a bit. So what happens is that the bonus points you get are the foam at the top.
Now depending on the program you have as a preference, the foam can be real or imaginary. Meanwhile the liquid of the beer stays the same at all times and will never vary. You will have a specific amount of foam given to you as these are the bonus points. In the end, what you need is the total of adding the volume of beer and foam to surpass the volume which is the cut-off (which is marked on the glass as a line).
Does this make sense? A bit confusing at first but when you get it you can use this analogy for a lot of things like this (Real and Complex Power ftw!), definitely including bonus points.